The 2017 Edouard Branly Award honors two young PSL researchers
Two young researchers, Antonin Eddi and Tarik Yefsah, who qualified in the physical sciences, will receive the Edouard Branly prize on March 5th. This is an exceptional double award honoring high-quality research that has been carried out in the spirit of the scholar's work.
A French doctor and physicist, Edouard Branly was able to combine fundamental research and applications and he created in 1890 the first wireless radio link. Since 1990, the Association of Friends of Edouard Branly has rewarded the remarkable work of young researchers in the field of physical sciences, particularly the science of waves, that includes a possible societal application.
The Edouard Branly Award
With a prize of €2,500, the Edouard Branly prize recognizes high-quality research carried out in the spirit of the scholar's work, with a significant part of work being done in France. Past winners include:
- 2011 Jérôme Wenger, Marseille Fresnel Institute (nano-bio photonics)
- 2012 Myriam Raybaut, ONERA's Physical Measurements department (tunable lasers)
- 2013 Vincent Jacques University of Paris Sud and ENS-PSL (nano-magnetism)
- 2015 Remy Geiger, Observatoire de Paris-PSL (Inertial sensors with cold atoms)
In 2017, the prize is supported by the Fédération Française des Sociétés Scientifiques (F2S), the France section of I.E.E.E. (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the Association of Friends of Edouard Branly.
Two PSL winners in 2017
This year, the applications were of an exceptional level, all presenting high quality work with a strong influence at the national and international level. The jury, composed of a dozen French scientists and chaired by Professor Georges Salmer, dealt with a particularly complex task.
At the end of the deliberations, the choice finally fell on Pr. Antonin Eddi (Laboratory of Physics and Mechanics of Heterogeneous Media, CNRS and ESPCI Paris-PSL) and Pr. Tarik Yefsah (Laboratory Kastler Brossel, UPMC / ENS-PSL). A dual attribution that has been guided by the practical impossibility of separating them in view of the different criteria of scientific excellence, interest in the work and recognition by the scientific community.
Although there are notable differences in the field of activity of each of the candidates, Antonin Eddi having for example worked on surface waves in fluid mechanics and Tarik Yefsah having conducted research in the field of diluted quantum material (especially the two-dimensional gases observed at very low temperatures of 100nK), both prove to be exceptional experimenters helping to build new experiments by pushing the technical limits of the equipment. These experiments contribute to highlighting new physical effects in a large part of their field of study and open wide perspectives. And, while the importance of quantum mechanics seems obvious in Tarik Yefsah's field of research, Antonin Eddi joins him in presenting, through experiments with bouncing drops on a liquid, a particular form of corpuscle wave duality.
It is therefore natural that the jury wanted a presentation of their work to be done in tandem on March 5th at 2pm at the Espace Pierre Gilles de Gennes ESPCI Paris-PSL for the ceremony of official award ceremony. This will be followed by a visit to the Branly Museum at the Catholic Institute.
The winners
Tarik Yefsah is a CNRS Research Scientist at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory (UPMC / ENS-PSL), since January 1, 2016.
Tarik did his thesis work in the same laboratory, under the direction of Jean Dalibard from 2007 to 2011. After obtaining his doctorate, he completed a postdoctoral stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Martin Zwierlein's group. Finally, after nearly four years at MIT, he joined Immanuel Bloch's group at Max-Planck Munich for a year as a postdoctoral researcher first and then as a visiting researcher. His current research focuses on ultra-cold Fermi gases in strong interaction.
Antonin Eddi is a research fellow at the PMMH laboratory (ESPCI Paris-PSL and CNRS). Antonin studies wave propagation at liquid interfaces. He develops an experimental approach to highlight new wave control mechanisms. His research focuses specifically on the study of the effect of temporal modifications of the properties of the medium (realization of instantaneous temporal mirrors) and on the development of an experimental approach of the hydro-elastic waves.